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Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas shortcuts

December 25, 2013

This year we hit the one of the more traditional points in our Christmas cycle, sharing lunch with Michael's extended family on the Sunshine Coast. Everyone else tends to focus on chicken, ham and prawns so we always make sure to bring a vego dish or two. This time around we streamlined a couple of recipes from the archives, so as not to take too much time or create excessive mess in someone else's kitchen.

Zucchini ribbons in pesto are even quicker when you buy a tub of ready-made pesto - just shred up the greens, pour over the pesto, add a squeeze of lemon and toss it all together. It's light and refeshing, and lasts well into the next day without getting wilted or slimey.

For something more substantial, we revisited the MoroccanSoup Bar-inspired chickpea thing. Since we were serving it at room temperature, we only needed heat to toast the almonds and fry some garlic, whisking together the yoghurt dressing and folding in canned chickpeas in a bowl. Rather than frying pita bread, I hatched the idea of substituting plain corn chips. They had the right crunchy, slightly grainy texture and were gluten-free as a bonus. The salad gave our lunch a little heft, though the leftovers were notably soggier come dinner time.

Catering for twenty-five, the table also boasted mini pumpkin quiches, potatoes and a couple more fresh green salads so we weren't left wanting for food or company.

8 comments:

The salad buffet spread is always a good stand by for Xmas celebratory lunches and is something that everyone enjoys. I'm a sucker for Changs crispy noodle Asian coleslaw which is a nice and daggy traditional touch on my family's Christmas buffet lunch.

sounds like a great Christmas buffet - my efforts focused on sweet food this year though I did my nut roast as always. the morroccan soup bar chickpea thing sounds like something I should try - going to have a look at it

That looks really good. We love pesto, and I've only just started making zucchini noodles, but I've never thought of putting the two together! How do you make your noodles? I've been using the food processor on the thinnest slicing setting, but I've been thinking of buying one of those noodle making contraptions.